The characteristic traits of the tourism sector’s current stage are:
Demographic change in European societies, the baby boom generation soon reaching retirement age (as from 2015).
Fall in Western Europe’s demand due to declining economic activity and the concomitant income reduction of 80% of the tourists coming to Spain.
Supply glut as demand shrinks, the fierce competition then forcing the least efficient and profitable companies to the wall.
Breakage of the value chain in which the tourist takes centre stage in the tourism business; the sector now has to exploit this change by thinking up new marketing management disciplines.
All this calls for a rethink of the whole tourism sector on the basis of tourist-centred innovation. This implies new models of business management; new forms of communication; the search for client well-being in the widest sense, paying special attention to health and the relation with the environment.
Any tourism destinations that fail to take this new situation into account and adapt themselves to it are bound to steadily lose ground in the market